


While You Were Sleeping

by Kirathaune



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-08
Updated: 2019-02-08
Packaged: 2019-10-24 08:03:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17700566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kirathaune/pseuds/Kirathaune
Summary: Second watch is a thankless shift, especially on a cold night deep in the woods. But Riza's sure that stale coffee--and Roy's snoring--will help her stay awake.





	While You Were Sleeping

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Crait](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crait/gifts).



She should have taken first watch, Riza thought as she added a good-sized branch to the fire. At least she would have had fresh coffee.

She stifled a yawn as she moved her tin cup of cold coffee closer to the embers, in hopes of warming it more quickly. Behind her, Roy Mustang left out a loud snore, and the noise echoed though the small stone shepherd’s hut.

Of course he was asleep already.

While she waited for her coffee to get to a drinkable temperature, Riza dug through her pack for a couple of ration bars. She chewed carefully, methodically, making the meal last as long as she could while she did a visual sweep of the tiny room. She’d checked it over earlier, when she and Mustang had decided to camp here instead of risking a night drive through the dense forest further up the road. But there had been some light then, if only the diffused gold-tinged light of the fast approaching sunset.

Now it was full dark, and the flickering flames cast dancing shadows on the tightly fitted stone walls of the hut. Even the roof was stone, made from a myriad pieces of sandstone carefully arranged to create a rustic dome. Riza wasn’t happy about the lack of an actual door, but she was glad that the original builder had been sensible enough to build the fireplace along the entrance wall.

She would rather freeze than sit with her back to an open doorway.

Finally, the coffee was hot enough to be worth drinking. Riza eased back to sit against the back wall next to where Mustang slept, keeping herself between the colonel and the doorway while she sipped at the warm brew, not caring that it was bitter and unsweetened. She’d always envied the way that Mustang could just lean back against a wall and fall asleep; she usually needed to lean on her drawn-up knees, pillowing her head in her arms to block out the light.

Maybe that was because she almost always had second watch.

She nearly spilled her coffee when she felt a soft thud on her shoulder, but it was only Mustang, falling against her while he softly snored. Riza switched her mug to her other hand, and she remained still as she studied the top of his head where it rested against her coat sleeve.

In sleep, he looked so young. The almost perpetual frown lines were gone, and in the dim firelight Riza could see his eyelashes fanning out against his cheekbones. His hair was sticking out in several directions, and she had to fight an almost overwhelming desire to brush a handful of errant black strands away from his face.

_Don’t go there,_ she thought. She pushed the unruly urge down until it subsided, unwilling to let a foolish impulse damage more than a decade of mutual respect and trust. 

He trusted her enough to sleep—and snore—in a doorless stone hut in the middle of the woods, trusted her to keep him safe, to be his silent, deadly shadow. It was a bone-deep trust that went both ways, and Riza knew that even as she protected him he did the same for her, with a loyalty that knew no bounds. 

She felt the heat of his body seeping through the thick wool of her coat sleeve, warming her arm, and she decided that warmth was far better than the bitter, now-cold coffee. 

Maybe second watch wasn’t so bad after all.


End file.
